ACT V: WICKED LOVE
(Scene: Late afternoon in the dark forest. NICOLAS is collapsed and sleeping on the ground.)
(SEAMUS and O’SHERIDAN enter the scene and see NICOLAS asleep on the forest floor)
SEAMUS
See! What’s this then? A drunkard that has come to his heavy rest?
Or a traveler, beset by bandits, whose helpless form we may molest?
O’SHERIDAN
Mayhap he is dead, and we may help ourselves to what things remain
In his pockets, or in his purse- Oh! And he is a pretty man!
SEAMUS
Your desire to love dead men leaves me with distaste.
Bad enough young boys, need you be a dead man’s violator?
Let us rummage through his pockets, and make haste.
Leave his pants and buckles alone- I shall satisfy you later.
O’SHERIDAN
He sleeps- he is not dead- unfortunate fact, that, and yet-
What is this here, I feel something folded in his coat’s pocket.
SEAMUS
Why ‘tis a poem, written to a girl, no doubt some love of his.
This drunkard has no money, he has drunk away his final wit
Perhaps I can sell this poem, and claim that I wrote it.”
O’SHERIDAN
I find your plagiarisms as attractive as I find your mouth
And your features and your manly arms;
Come, Seamus and let us retire to some shady bower
I would like to cover you there with my charms.
(They begin to sing)
Seamus and O’Sheridan’s Love Song
O’SHERIDAN
Seamus, Oh Seamus,
Stealer of poems
And breaker… of hearts!
Seamus, Oh Seamus,
Vagabond thug,
And lover… luscious!
Come with me now,
Let’s lie right down,
And ply forbidden love
Here on the ground.
SEAMUS
All my life I was told
That I would grow up
To love maidens many fold!
But all I ever wanted
Was a manly face,
To kiss and embrace!
And then I found you,
O’Sheridan my whore
And my heart did soar!!
(Together they sing)
We can love and steal and plagiarize
We can see the stars in each other’s eyes
We can rob and beat and kill out here
And lie in each other’s arms, all the year,
Oh my love! Oh my love!
You make abomination beautiful!
Oh my love! Oh my love!
You make this shame dutiful!
Oh my love! Oh my love!
I love you!
(They lie down in the tall grasses in a clearing in the forest and fall asleep in each other’s embrace.)
(KURTH the villain comes onto the stage, and sees O’SHERIDAN and SEAMUS asleep.)
KURTH
I am on a mission to wake bitter Nicolas,
And I know that he sleeps not far from here;
But wait, what are these two doing, lying there
Looking as though they sleep often in the tall grass?
Surely they are both unwholesome and rugged of face.
I shall be tender and not wake them, and steal
What valuables they keep in their shameful embrace.
What’s this? No money? Only some scribbled poem?
I would have hoped that two thugs could do better.
Let them die now, happily together.
(He Cuts their throats with a knife, and continues walking to where Nicolas lies asleep, a distance away)
NARRATOR
The long day passed, while cursed Nicolas slept, fitfully.
Dreaming of his violated love, though not fully aware
Of his hand in her misery. Finally, with a start, he sprang
Awake in the shade of a foul elder-tree, just as the resound
Of the forest night-chorus echoed, and an owl darkly sang.
(NICOLAS wakes up as KURTH approaches)
NARRATOR
With horror and with delirium, his memories assaulted
His wracked brain with the truth. The Hag, the stones,
And sweet Rosalyn, whose last night had come upon her.
KURTH
Nicolas! I am Kurth, a lover of the goat of the wood.
A follower of the rite of the elder Lord. You, Nicolas
I am to aid you in your task, and do it now, we should.
This evening has Rosalyn been drugged again, and lies
Helpless in the garden east of her father’s walls. Let us
Travel there swift to fetch her, as this darkness falls.
Come, brother Nicolas, let us fly, and see this done.
The moon will soon rise and our unholy duty calls.
(NICOLAS nods to him once, and turns his back).
NICOLAS
Oh My Rosalyn, what shall I do? Struggle with Fate?
What shall I do? Submit and play my part?
It comes to me that wanton bloodletting
May unburden my heart.
(Nicolas slowly takes out a knife, and spins around and stabs Kurth.)
(KURTH falls to the ground and dies.)
(NICOLAS runs off stage)
(Scene: The East Garden of Lord Isadora’s Manor, at night. ROSALYN is lying asleep on a stone bench in the Garden.)
(Nicolas enters the Garden, out of breath).
NARRATOR
So off to Lord Isadora’s keep did Nicolas swiftly run.
He ran so hard, he panted deep, and arrived as the moon
Had risen above the peaks. There in the east garden lay
A limp and moaning Rosalyn.
NICOLAS
Awaken, my love, awaken and see me!
Forgive me!
Hear what I must say!
(He takes her in his arms rather abruptly, and she wakes up, and looks at him, seeming alarmed.)
ROSALYN
Whence comest thou, Nicolas?
Where are we and why are you so fierce?
Let me return to my father’s halls, and feel the safety of my
Home’s own walls! I sleep beneath that evil moon, alas!
NICOLAS
You must come
With me away from here, now, this very night! There is
Danger here, and if you remain, you will never last. You
Will vanish utterly, but not if I have any say. I would suffer
A thousand deaths, than to let them your life undo!”
(ROSALYN fights to be free of his arms)
ROSALYN
You speak as a madman! release me!
This is a dream, a horrible dream, not unlike this last eve’s!
You speak madness, and your lustful face haunts my sleep!
Release me at once so that I might fly and rest
Behind the walls of my family’s keep!
(NICOLAS begins to sing)
Improbe Amor (Nicolas and Rosalyn’s Song)
NICOLAS
Rosalyn, you must have trust,
And come away with me:
They will feed you to an evil
Ancient and depraved lust!
So come away with me!
I love you, yes, love you,
But they will come to harm you,
And this I will prevent, assuredly!
ROSALYN
Madman! Release me!
You speak of ancient evils
And beg me go away with thee?
This is insanity!
Love? Love you now confide?
We have no common friendship,
And fornication is no courtship,
You know not my feelings deep inside.
NICOLAS
Rosalyn, let’s speak of these things later
The Dark One is nigh- we must evade her!
And the Goat-spawned demons in their hoods,
They are crawling from the nighted woods!
You can learn to love me, when we are free
Of these cursed arcane rites and heathenry
I have come all this way to save you…
Only because I love you…
ROSALYN
Let me go! You are mad!
Seek counsel from a priest, ‘tis very sad!
To see a grown man obsessed by fantasy
Of demons in the woods
…And of loving me!
Love! Have you gone quite mad?
Do these scary stories work on other girls?
You’d get further with gems and pearls!
Unhand me, madman! Unhand me, ah!
(She begins struggling more)
NICOLAS
Heartless beauty, does love mean naught to you?
If a man’s love be scorned, what is left to do?
What can better so precious a gift?
What gem can surpass a love that’s true?
I can see you will ignore my misery
And put me out of mind, out of memory,
But I have grown cold, and can only do
What I must,
To never see,
Another’s glee,
At having you.
(Nicolas wraps his arms around her head and snaps her neck. ROSALYN dies.)
(song ends)
(NICOLAS cradles her head in his lap)
NICOLAS
I have no more tears to cry for my Rosalyn’s pity.
No demon, no hag, no other man will
Ever have you, my love.
I shall hold last your pretty head.
(Act ends)
Go to ACT VI